In this edition of Nothing But Net, a weekly look at events across the NBA, our who’s hot and who’s not may surprise you and two fun memories of Milwaukee.

When the NBA’s board of governors unanimously approved a switch to a 2-2-1-1-1 for its championship series, it was a move praised throughout the league.

It not only maintains home court advantage for the team with the best regular season record, it makes the best-of-seven series more equitable than the 2-3-2 format that’s been in place since 1985.

Game 5 in any series is seen as the most pivotal game and having it played on the court of the team without home court advantage was seen a critical flaw that needed to be corrected.

“It reached a crescendo where basketball people thought it was important and the business people stood down and said it was no longer necessary for the convenience of transportation or the media,” soon-to-be commissioner Adam Silver said.

The move to 2-3-2 in the mid-1980s came at a different era in the NBA. Teams back then used to take commercial flights — no self-respecting team would ever do that now — and with a seemingly annual final between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, the drain on bodies was significant.

That’s no longer the case with teams all flying charters and the league has even used its own charter aircraft at times to get the office staff between cities.

The governors also agreed to assure an extra day of rest between Game 6 and 7 in any series that goes the distance, providing some much needed rest before the most important game of the season.

The move makes sense from every level, the only concern being that some of the league’s smaller market media outlets may find the extra flight costs prohibitive and not cover the series.

But the number out out-of-market newspapers covering The Finals has dwindled significantly over the years thanks to late start times and early deadlines so the league does not see that as an issue.

Who’s hot?

New Orleans Pelicans

Yes, the pre-season doesn’t really mean a lot and the records are fool’s gold but the Pelicans have won six of seven and, most important, Eric Gordon looks good, Anthony Davis is active and improving and they look now like they could legitimately challenge for the final Western Conference playoff spot.

Who’s not?

Chicago Bulls

Yes, it’s all well and good that Derrick Rose is back and by all indications looking great, the team’s 7-0 and that’s a very good thing.

So, why the concern?

Joakim Noah has a nagging groin injury and he’ll likely start the season on the shelf and Kirk Hirnich has a concussion and who knows how long that might linger.

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The Raptors week ahead

Finally, something that matters. After the eighth and final pre-season game Friday in Milwaukee, the regular season is upon them with the opener Oct. 30 against Boston.

It’s just one of 82 games in a long season but it is somewhat symbolic and a “statement” game of sorts. It’s also against a divisional foe so that’s something, too.

All time, the Raptors are 9-9 in season openers and 10-8 in home openers since it all began against New Jersey on Nov. 3, 1995.

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Around the league

Brendan Malone, the first head coach of the Raptors and an NBA lifer, resigned suddenly as an assistant in Sacramento on Wednesday, leaving a staff that’s led by his son Michael. At 68, Brendan just got worn out by the travel and the grind but leaving almost on the eve of the season is a tough time to go. Still lots of Toronto connections on the staff, though, with Micah Nori and Dee Brown both working there . . . For the first time since 2009, Greg Oden played in an NBA game, getting about four minutes — including a dunk on his first touch — in Miami’s game with New Orleans . . . New Clippers coach Doc Rivers didn’t take long to get fed up with the plethora of Laker pennants and memorabilia hanging from the rafters of the Staples Center (16 championship banners, 10 retired numbers) and the team will cover it all up with portraits of its own players. Seeing how neither team owns the arena — they rent from AEG — it seems to make sense the Clips would want to make their home games all about them . . . Cleveland will retire the No. 11 worn by Zydrunas Ilguaskas; he joins Nate Thurmond, Mark Price, Bingo Smith, Austin Carr, Larry Nance and Brad Daugherty as honoured Cavaliers. LeBron James is not; Cleveland might lead all sports in retired numbers for a franchise that has never won a championship and has played for one only once . . . Not entirely sure how he arrived at the estimate but rehabbing Boston point guard Rajon Rondo said he’s about 87 per cent better — not 86, not 88 — after ACL surgery last spring. He vows to play sometime this season which will be good for the Celtics in 2013-14 but bad in the Wiggins Derby.

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Hey, remember the time?

Milwaukee? Two stories.

First: It’s the final game of the 2003-04 season, a nothing game for the 32-49 Raptors but the playoff-bound Bucks needed to win. Jalen Rose hit a corner three with five seconds left and Toronto won by two, avoiding a 50-loss season and giving a good Milwaukee team a far tougher first round playoff matchup since they were eliminated by eventual conference champion Detroit Pistons. Had the Bucks won, they would have met the far less imposing Miami Heat in the first round.

Of course, the Toronto media didn’t care that much, we all had to race home for the highly-anticipated firing of Kevin O’Neill.

Second: Midway through the 2002-03 season and the Sun sends a relative basketball neophyte named Steve Buffery on his first road trip. Milwaukee’s on Central Time, which is a deadline issue in itself and Buffery’s trying to write during the game so he can file on time.

Well, the Raptors tie the game at the buzzer to send it into overtime and my man Buffery looks ashen courtside:

“What the #(%(@ do we do now, Smitty?”

Relax and watch five more minutes of hoops.

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Wiggins watch

The teen phenom and presumptive No. 1 NBA draft pick next June still hasn’t played a game but there’s still all kinds of chatter.

He didn’t make another cover of a major American preview magazine — they’re basically all published by now — but the buzz continues.

Marcus Smart, the highly-touted Oklahoma State point guard who’ll play in the same conference as Wiggins and Kansas, isn’t taking the Canadian’s reputation at face value.

“They are saying he is the best college player there is and he has not even played a game yet,” Smart told USA TODAY Sports. “Of course that hypes me up. It is all talk. He still has to put his shorts on one leg at a time like I do. It is all potential. I am not saying he can’t do it. But he has not done it yet.”

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You don’t say

“I’ve already seen it and they didn’t change it any in the last couple of years so I didn’t have to go back” —Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni on why he passed up a sightseeing trip to The Great Wall while his team was in China for exhibition games.

“Terrence shot the ball decently but I got on him about the running Harlem Globetrotter hook shot. We want to play the game the right way. The basketball gods have a way of coming back and getting you when you mess with the game so I got on him about that.” — Raptors coach Dwane Casey on Terrence Ross’s circus shot during Wednesday’s rout of the Memphis Grizzlies.

“Amen” — Clippers coach Doc Rivers on the end of the exhibition season and truer words have never been spoken.

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